Dry cleaning lockers let your customers drop off and collect garments at any hour, in your storefront, an apartment lobby or an office building, while you keep inspecting, ticketing and pricing exactly as you do at the counter. The locker handles identity, payment and handover. The difference from a laundromat’s wash & fold bank is in the doors: dry cleaning comes back on hangers, so most of a dry cleaner’s bank is full-height hanging doors sized to the longest garment you return. KioskForce designs the locker hardware and software in-house and is taking reservations for the first laundry-locker production run.
Quick answer
- What it is: secure, code-operated doors for 24-hour dry cleaning drop-off and pickup. The customer saves a card at drop-off and collects with a pickup code sent by text.
- Door design: hanging doors with a rail for suits, dresses and coats; express doors for shirts and single items; wash-dry-fold doors if you also do laundry. Size the hanging doors to your garments: a suit in a standard 54 in (1,370 mm) poly bag, a gown in a 72 in (1,830 mm) bag.
- Pricing: per garment from your own price list. No weighing is needed for dry cleaning; weight sensing is for wash & fold doors only.
- Payment: the saved card is charged once you have counted and priced the order, and the money settles into your own payment account.
- Price: indicative US$550–650 per hanging door, US$350–450 per express door, software US$99 per location per month with no revenue share. Get an instant estimate for your door mix, no email needed.
- Lead time: about 8–12 weeks for a custom build, plus shipping.
Why dry cleaners add lockers
Most counters open while customers are at work. A 7 am to 7 pm counter misses everyone who leaves before seven and gets home after it. Lockers fix three situations:
- After-hours customers at your own store. A bank in the lobby, or a through-wall build where customers drop off from the street and staff unload inside, gives you 24-hour dry cleaning drop-off without a night shift.
- Satellite drop points. Instead of a second counter, put a bank somewhere your route already passes. It needs power and a phone signal, not a staffed shop.
- Office and apartment routes. A bank in an office building or apartment mail room puts you where the suits and shirts are, emptied and refilled on a fixed run.
Lockers do not create demand. They capture customers your counter hours already lose.
Many cleaners already have a dry cleaning drop box, an after-hours slot with envelopes and a pen. It takes garments in but does nothing for pickup, the half customers care about, and nobody knows who dropped what until the envelopes are opened. A locker identifies the customer, takes a card and hands back the finished order behind a code. It costs far more than a slot in the wall, so it has to earn its place on volume.
Hanging doors: how much clearance suits, dresses and coats need
The single most important dimension in a dry cleaning locker is the clear height inside the hanging door. A door that is 100 mm too short means a coat folds over the bottom of the cell and comes out creased, which defeats the point of pressing it.
Two references give usable numbers. Dry cleaning poly bags come in standard lengths on a 21 in width with a 4 in gusset: short bags of roughly 30–40 in for shirts, 54 in for suits, coats and formal wear, 60 in for dresses and 72 in for gowns. Wardrobe planning guides use similar bands: about 900–1,100 mm (35–43 in) of clear hang for shirts and trousers over a hanger, about 1,150–1,350 mm for blazers and longer jackets, and about 1,500–1,700 mm (59–67 in) for dresses, coats and long outerwear.
| Garment (on a hanger, bagged) | Typical bag length | Clear height to plan for | Door type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laundered shirts, blouses | 30–40 in | about 760–1,020 mm | Short hanging door, or folded in an express door |
| Trousers over a hanger, skirts | 30–40 in | about 900–1,100 mm | Short hanging door |
| Suit, blazer | 54 in | about 1,370 mm | Hanging / long door |
| Dress, raincoat, knee-length coat | 54–60 in | about 1,370–1,520 mm | Hanging / long door |
| Evening gown, full-length coat | 72 in | about 1,830 mm | Full-height hanging door, or counter only |
| Ties, scarves, single small items | — | — | Express door |
| Bagged laundry (if you add wash & fold) | — | about 600 mm (24 in) | Wash-dry-fold door |
Clear heights are the bag lengths converted to millimetres and rounded. Allow extra above the rail for the hanger hook and a little below the hem. Depth matters too: wardrobe guides put front-facing hanging space at about 550–600 mm (22–24 in). Tell us whether hangers should face the door or run side-on, and which garments must fit, and the cell is drawn to suit.
Two consequences follow. Gowns are the outlier: a 72 in bag plus the hook needs close to a full-height door, so decide early whether gowns go through lockers at all. And short hanging doors stack: if most returns are shirts and suits, two short doors one above the other can hold more orders per metre of wall than one full-height door. Hanging doors come with the rail fitted; the hub lists the standard door types.
Dry cleaning locker workflow vs the counter
| Step | At the counter | Through a locker |
|---|---|---|
| Customer identified | Name or phone given to staff | Phone or email entered on the locker screen or by QR code |
| Payment method | Cash or card at pickup, or an account | Card saved at drop-off, charged after the order is priced |
| Garment count and inspection | Done in front of the customer | Done at your plant after collection; the customer is told the count when priced |
| Tickets and tags | Written or printed at intake | Applied at your plant, tied to the locker order number |
| Pricing | Per item from your price list | Per item from your price list, as line items on the order |
| Pickup | During opening hours only | Any hour, with a code sent by text |
| Unpaid orders | Held behind the counter | Pickup code stays locked; the customer gets a payment link |
| Record of handover | Paper ticket stub, if kept | Time-stamped drop-off, door-open and pickup events |
The one real loss is the conversation at intake, the customer pointing at the wine stain. The locker flow moves it to text: a note and a photo of the problem, sent when you price the order.
Bag tags and tickets vs per-order codes
Keep your heat-seal or pin-on tags, numbered tickets and conveyor. A locker does not replace them; it replaces the counter transaction that creates the ticket. The order exists the moment the door closes, with the customer, door and time, and that order number is what your intake staff tag against at the plant. Two habits make this reliable:
- One bag per order. A reusable branded bag issued to each regular customer means the bag on your intake table can only belong to one locker order.
- Count before you price. Count as you tag and price straight away, so “I sent four shirts, not three” comes up while the bag is still on your table.
On the way back the customer never sees your tags. They get a per-order pickup code that opens one door, once, and only after payment has cleared, which is safer than finished orders left on a rack with a name on the bag.
Pricing per item and card-on-file charging
Dry cleaning is priced per garment, with surcharges for silk, pleats or stains, so nothing needs to be weighed. The weight sensors on laundry locker pages, including ours, exist for wash & fold, where the price is weight times a rate. On a dry-cleaning-only hanging door they add cost and no information.
In the KioskForce operator portal an order total is a list of lines, not a single number. A dry cleaning order is priced per garment from your price list, plus extras such as rush or repairs. A wash & fold order is weight times your rate. A customer who drops both in one visit gets one order with both sets of lines. Your minimum order applies across the total.
The card is saved at drop-off and charged once you confirm the priced order, so the customer pays for what you actually counted, not a guess. The money settles into your own payment account. KioskForce never holds it, takes no revenue share and charges no per-order fee. If the card declines, the customer gets a payment link by text and the pickup code stays locked until they pay.
Mixing wash & fold doors into a dry cleaner’s bank
Most dry cleaners also take some laundry: shirts laundered on hangers, household items, a bag of everyday washing. A bank built to order can carry all of it.
| Example bank (illustrative) | Doors | Indicative price |
|---|---|---|
| Hanging / long doors | 8 × US$550–650 | US$4,400–5,200 |
| Express doors (shirts, single items) | 4 × US$350–450 | US$1,400–1,800 |
| Wash-dry-fold doors | 4 × US$500–600 | US$2,000–2,400 |
| Weight sensing on 2 of the wash-dry-fold doors | 2 × US$90–150 | US$180–300 |
| Hardware total, 16 doors | about US$7,980–9,700 | |
| Touchscreen payment kiosk (optional) | per bank | + US$1,800–2,400 |
| Software | per location | US$99 per month |
Prices are KioskForce’s indicative bands, before freight, duties and taxes. Volume breaks of about 10% start at 25 doors and about 20% at 50. An outdoor-rated cabinet adds about 20%. The instant estimate prices your own mix, and how much laundry lockers cost covers freight, duties and what other vendors publish.
Decide which wash-dry-fold doors get weight sensing when you order. Sensors are fitted at the factory, per door, and cannot be retrofitted. A sensed door gives an estimated weight and price range at drop-off. If you bill by weight, the final bill should come from a scale certified for trade use under your local weights and measures rules. The weigh-at-drop-off guide explains how the two readings fit together.
Adding wash & fold to a dry cleaning business
If your plant has spare washer capacity, a few wash-dry-fold doors are the cheapest way to test wash & fold demand: you already have the driver, the customers and the route. Set a per-pound or per-kilo rate and a minimum that covers handling a small bag (how to price wash and fold works through it), then check the payback with your own figures in the ROI calculator. Starting from nothing rather than adding a service? Read how to start a laundry business with lockers first.
Damage, lost garments and the evidence a locker leaves
Disputes over lost or damaged garments are part of dry cleaning, and lockers change where the evidence comes from.
The Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI), a fabricare trade association based in Laurel, Maryland, notes that its Fair Claims Guide for Consumer Textile Products is approved by the American National Standards Institute. The Guide sets out how responsibility for damaged textiles is decided and values a claim as replacement cost adjusted for age, condition and life expectancy. Consumers’ Checkbook describes it as widely used by drycleaners, consumers and mediators, citing life expectancies such as two years for a tie and three for a women’s blouse.
Two points matter for an unattended handover:
- Lost articles need evidence. The international edition of the Guide assumes, for lost-article claims, evidence showing “with reasonable certainty” that the article was submitted and lost in the cleaner’s custody; without it, responsibility cannot be clearly determined.
- Care labels decide many damage claims. The FTC’s Care Labeling Rule (16 CFR Part 423) requires manufacturers to label one safe care method. The FTC says drycleaners are not required to follow the label, but that using another method “may be risky”.
A locker leaves a better record than a drop box or a busy counter: drop-off time and door, every door opening logged against the driver code that opened it, and the pickup. What it cannot record is how many garments went into the bag. Close that gap at intake: count, photograph existing damage, and send the priced order the same day. Put your claims policy, including any liability limit, in the terms the customer accepts when saving a card.
This is a summary for planning, not legal advice. Rules and the enforceability of liability limits vary by state and country; confirm with your adviser or local consumer regulator. Facts as of October 2026.
Where to put dry cleaning lockers
- Your own storefront. The cheapest test: an indoor bank in the lobby, or a through-wall build specified at order.
- Office buildings. Business wear is dry cleaning’s core; a lobby or mail room puts the locker on the commute.
- Apartment buildings. Mail rooms and lobbies, by agreement with the building manager. Buildings without in-unit laundry also suit wash & fold doors.
- Gyms. Drop off on the way in, collect on the way out.
Every site needs mains power, a mobile or Wi-Fi signal, and clearance for full-height doors to open. Outdoor-rated cabinets are available for unsheltered sites. On-site installation is optional and, in some regions, provided through a local distributor. Support is by email.
Where dry cleaning lockers are the wrong answer
- You have no collection run. A bank away from your store needs emptying at least daily. Start with one in your own shop.
- Your customers come at counter hours anyway. If nobody asks for evening pickup, a locker adds cost, not orders.
- Your work is high-touch. Bridal, leather and suede, restoration and alterations that need a fitting are counter conversations. Lockers suit routine shirts, suits and dresses.
- There is no power at the site. These lockers need mains power and a signal. Battery-only keypad lockers exist for such sites, but they cannot take card payments at the door or report events in real time.
- You want someone else to run it. We sell the lockers and the software to the business that does the cleaning. We do not clean garments or operate locker routes.
What to specify when you ask for a quote
- Your garments: the longest garment you want to return through lockers, and your weekly mix of shirts, suits, dresses and coats.
- Door mix: short and long hanging doors, express doors, and any wash-dry-fold doors, with which of those need weight sensing.
- Site: storefront, through-wall, office, apartment building or outdoors.
- Payment: phone-only, or a touchscreen payment kiosk on the bank for walk-up customers.
- Timeline: custom builds take about 8–12 weeks plus shipping, and first-run slots can be reserved now.
KioskForce sells direct and, in some regions, through local distributors. Where a distributor supplied the lockers, it handles warranty and service. For other locker layouts, see the locker configurator.
Frequently asked questions
How do dry cleaning lockers work?
The customer chooses drop-off on the locker screen or scans a QR code, enters a phone number or email and saves a card. A door opens, the garments go in, and an order is created with the door number and time. The dry cleaner collects the bag, inspects, counts and tickets the garments, prices the order from its own price list and charges the saved card. The finished order goes back into a hanging door and the customer receives a pickup code by text.
How tall does a dry cleaning locker door need to be?
Tall enough for the longest garment you intend to return through it, plus the hanger hook. Dry cleaning poly bags come in standard lengths: roughly 30 to 40 inches for shirts, 54 inches (about 1,370 mm) for suits and coats, 60 inches for dresses and 72 inches (about 1,830 mm) for gowns. Specify the hanging door clear height to the garments you actually see most weeks.
Do dry cleaning lockers weigh the garments?
Not for dry cleaning, because dry cleaning is priced per garment, not by weight. Optional per-cell weight sensing exists for wash and fold doors, where the price depends on weight, and it gives an estimated weight at drop-off. Hanging doors used only for dry cleaning do not need it. If you mix wash and fold doors into the bank, choose which of those doors get sensors at order, because sensors are factory-fitted and cannot be added later.
How much do dry cleaning lockers cost?
KioskForce’s indicative bands are about US$550 to 650 per hanging door, US$350 to 450 per express door and US$500 to 600 per wash-dry-fold door, before freight, duties and taxes, with volume breaks from 25 doors. An optional touchscreen payment kiosk is US$1,800 to 2,400 per bank. Software is US$99 per location per month with no revenue share and no per-order fee. A 16-door bank of mostly hanging doors works out at roughly US$8,000 to 9,700 before freight.
Who is responsible if a garment left in a locker goes missing?
Responsibility depends on your terms and local law, and on evidence. The International Fair Claims Guide, used across the drycleaning industry, assumes for lost-article claims that there is evidence the article was submitted and lost while in the cleaner’s custody. A locker gives you a time-stamped drop-off record, an audit trail of which driver code opened which door, and a pickup record. Counting and confirming garments promptly after collection closes the remaining gap. This is not legal advice.
Can a dry cleaner use the same lockers for wash and fold?
Yes. Every bank is built to order, so a dry cleaner can mix hanging doors for dry cleaning with wash-dry-fold doors for bagged laundry and small express doors for shirts and single items. The portal prices each order as line items: per garment for dry cleaning, weight times your rate for wash and fold, plus extras. Where you bill by weight, use a scale certified for trade use under your local weights and measures rules.
Is a dry cleaning locker better than a dry cleaning drop box?
A drop box or after-hours slot only takes garments in. It does not know who dropped what, cannot take a card, and cannot return finished orders. A locker identifies the customer at drop-off, saves a card, records the time and door, and returns finished garments on hangers behind a pickup code that opens only after payment clears. A drop box costs far less, so it remains the right answer for a cleaner with a handful of after-hours drop-offs a week.
References
- Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute International — “Life Expectancy of Household Textiles” (6 May 2020; notes ANSI approval of the Fair Claims Guide). https://dlionline.org/life-expectancy-of-household-textiles-3/
- Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute International — home page (accessed 3 October 2026). https://www.dlionline.org/
- Drycleaning Institute of Australia — “International Fair Claims Guide for Consumer Textiles Products”, sections on lost articles and condition of lost articles (accessed 3 October 2026). https://www.drycleanersweb.com.au/media/website_pages/consumers/fair-claims-guide/fair_claims_guide_0.pdf
- Consumers’ Checkbook — “How to Handle Drycleaning Problems” (accessed 3 October 2026). https://www.checkbook.org/national/drycleaners/articles/How-to-Handle-Drycleaning-Problems-1293
- US Federal Trade Commission — “Clothes Captioning: Complying with the Care Labeling Rule” (accessed 3 October 2026). https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/clothes-captioning-complying-care-labeling-rule
- Interplas — “21 x 4 x 54 Clear Plastic Garment Bags & Dry Cleaning Bags on Rolls” (accessed 3 October 2026). https://www.interplas.com/21-x-4-x-54-plastic-dry-cleaning-bags-p-gar-54
- Allure Kitchen Cabinet — “Wardrobe Hanging Space Dimensions: Rod Heights, Depths and Clearances” (accessed 3 October 2026). https://www.allurekitchencabinet.com/blog/wardrobe-hanging-space-dimensions
Related
- Laundry lockers for laundromats, wash & fold and dry cleaners: the hub, with door types, price bands and the software
- Laundry locker instant estimate: price your door mix and reserve a first-run slot
- How much do laundry lockers cost?: hardware, software, freight and other vendors’ prices
- 24-hour laundry drop-off lockers: extending service beyond opening hours
- How to price wash and fold: rates, minimums and locker orders
- Weigh-at-drop-off laundry lockers: when weight sensing earns its place
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